FERN FAMILY 



7. Botrychium californicum Underw. 

 California Grape-fern. Fig. 9. 



Botrychium californicum Underw. Torreya 5: 107. 1903. 



Rhizome short, with numerous very thick, corru- 

 gated roots; fronds lax, 30-70 cm. long; bud hairy; 

 common stalk of medium length, very stout ; sterile 

 blade very long-stalked, drooping, rounded-triangular 

 or irregular in outline, usually obtuse. 15-40 cm. 

 broad, nearly as long, ternately compound, the pri- 

 mary divisions 3 or 4 times pinnately or subternately 

 divided; segments large, fiat, ovate to rhombic, 

 obtuse or acutish. membrano-herbaceous in drying, 

 the margins minutely denticulate; sporophyll stout, 

 long-stalked, 25-60 cm. long, the panicle 3-5-pinnate, 

 diffuse. 



Infrequent, in moist mountain meadows and thickets, in 

 the Transition Zone; northern California, southward in the 

 Sierra Nevada to Tulare County, at middle elevations. 

 Perhaps an extreme, lu.xuriant form of the last. Type 

 locality: Ouincy, California. 



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^ /7=N -^^ fry'^<^-fi;j'^ 



Family 2. POLYPODIACEAE. 

 Fern Family. 

 Leafy plants of various habit, the rhizomes horizontal and creeping or shorter 

 and oblique or erect, often stout. Fronds pendent to spreading or erect, usually 

 stalked; blades simple to several times pinnatifid or pinnate, or decompound, 

 coiled in vernation. Sporangia borne promiscuously on the under side of wholly 

 fertile blades, or upon slender or contracted, partially foliose or non-foliose blades 

 or parts of blades, or. as in most of our species, in clusters (sori) upon the backs 

 of ordinarv foliaceous blades ; long-stalked, provided with an incomplete vertical 

 ring of thickened hygroscopic cells (the annulus) and opening transversely. Sori 

 either with or without a membranous protective covering (indusium). Prothallia 

 green. 



About 130 genera and 6,000 species, widely distributed, including by far the greater number of living ferns. 



Sori dorsal upon the veins, separate, not marginal. 

 Indusium wholly or partially inferior. 



Indusium wholly inferior, the divisions stellate or spreading. ,1. Woodsia. 



Indusium attached by its base at one side, hood-shaped, thrust back by the ripening sporangia. 



2. Fih.v. 



Indusium, if present, superior. 



Sori round to oval. . . , n , •■ 



Stipes jointed to the rhizome; blades pinnatifid or pinnatisect; mdusia wanting. 3. Folypodium. 

 Stipes continuous with the rhizome; blades 1-3-pinnate; indusia present in most species. 



Indusium orbicular, centrally peltate. 4. Polystichum. 



Indusium (if present) roundish-reniform. attached at its sinus. _ 5. Dryoptens. 



Sori oblong or linear to lunate or hippocrepiform (roundish in Athyrium americanum). 



Venation partially areolate, the large tumid sori borne in a chain-like row close to the midribs. 



6. Woodwardia. 



Venation wholly free; sori small, oblique. 



Blades small, evergreen; rhizome scales with dark-walled cells; son oblong to linear, straight 



or nearly so. 7. Asplcmum 



Blades large, delicate; rhizome scales with thin-walled cells; sori mostly lunate to hippo- 

 crepiform or roundish. 8. Athynum. 

 Sori marginal or submarginal (borne at or near the apex of the veins) or in a few cases the sporangia decur- 

 rent on the veins or completely covering them. 

 Sporangia following the veins throughout. 9. Pttyrogramma. 

 Sporangia borne at or near the apex of the veins. 



Fronds dimorphous, the fertile blades with contracted linear segments. 



Blades linear, pinnatisect or simply pinnate, the segments of the fertile ones with a true intra- 



marginal indusium. 10. Stntthwptens. 



Blades broader, 1-3-pinnate, the divisions of the fertile ones with a broadly revolute indusiform 

 margin. H- Cryptogramma. 



Fronds (fertile and sterile) alike or nearly so. c \. ■ 



Plants large, coars;: sporangia borne on a veinlike receptacle connecting the ends of the veins; 



indusium double, the inner one minute, concealed. . 12. Ptendium. 



Plants mainly small; sporangia not borne on a special receptacle; indusia (if any) single. 

 Sporangia borne on the under side of sharply reflexed membranous lobes. 



13. Adiantum. 

 Sporangia not borne on the back of reflexed lobes. 



Vein-ends distinctly thickened; proper indusium often present. 14. Cheilanthes. 



Vein-ends scarcely or not at all enlarged; proper indusium invariably wanting. 



Margin of segments widely reflexed or revolute, usually modified; blades glabrous 



or nearly so. 15. Pellaea. 



Margin of segments narrowly or not at all revolute; blades variously hairy, scaly, 

 or ceraceous beneath. 16. Notholaena. 



